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August 3, 2003
Review: Development with care
ECONOMIC growth has become the mantra of our age. It is, we are told, the panacea of all our ills and the measure of all progress. We are all too aware of our status as an ‘underdeveloped’ country, it is through economic growth, we are told, that we will join the ranks of the developed nations. In the quest for this elusive Holy Grail the prevailing orthodoxy, exemplified by such organizations as the IMF and World Bank, take indicators such as GDP growth as the true measures of ‘progress’. This thinking has crept into all aspects of social planning and development, so that officials are constantly harping on the effects of ‘development’ initiatives on the economy.
Time and again we have heard statements to the effect that the reason the provision of health care is important is because a healthy workforce is good for the economy. Universal education is necessary so that there can be a skilled workforce to foster economic growth. Women should be empowered so that they can get out of the house and contribute to the society by getting ‘real’ jobs (as if the numerous duties foisted upon them in the home by our patriarchal set-up serve no useful purpose). The provision of security and justice is important in the country because it is a lure to foreign investment.
All of this seems to suppose that education, good health, security, justice and the enjoyment of basic human rights are not good enough aims in themselves but merely means to an end. They are cobblestones that pave the road to economic ‘development’. In his book, Social Progress and Sustainable Development, Dr Neil Thin gives an apt analogy for this state of affairs, comparing it to the belief that a garden is getting better just because more gardening is being done in it.
There is a tendency amongst governments, aid agencies, donor organizations, businesses and private individuals — all the different types of gardeners so to speak — to measure progress by looking at increases in activity rather than improvements in quality. For Dr Thin, this is a grave failing. “For both logical and moral reasons,” he writes, “it is essential that planners come to judge the success of economies not in the morally neutral terms of economic activity as measured by GDP, but in normative terms of how well they are contributing to quality of life, social justice and happiness.”
The key question for those involved in development work is, how might the success of economies be measured? From the 1970s there has been a growing awareness that the old economic measures which concentrated on short term processes involving growth in production, centralized planning and technology transfers are simply inadequate.
Critiques focused on environmental harm and on social injustices perpetuated by the pursuit of this model of progress. Thus those working in the field of development came to talk more and more about the ‘social’ and environmental dimensions of development. This led to the by now familiar mantra that for development initiatives to work and be ‘sustained’, it has to have three pillars — economic, environmental and social.
But what is this word ‘social’ and precisely what does it refer to? As Dr Thin notes, there seems to be little consensus and a great deal of confusion over the meanings and boundaries of this term. It is this confusion that he sets out to clear up.
The three pillars framework, he maintains, is a faulty one and not particularly helpful in conceptualizing visions of, and planning policies to achieve, sustainable development. It creates a false dichotomy between economic and social activities, showing how there are many different dimensions to economic activity — many of which are unabashedly social in nature.
Furthermore, Dr Thin shows how development initiatives often tend to be couched in pathological terms in the traditional three pillar framework — preventing the abuse of human rights, or trying to prevent the disruption of ecosystems, rather than presenting a clear positive vision of what the aim of social progress should be.
Instead of the three-pillar framework, Dr Thin offers his own conceptual framework to “facilitate better communication and understanding as a basis for improved policies, implementation strategies and learning strategies”. He replaces the traditional three pillars with biophysical, institutional, technical and ethical (BITE) dimensions of development.
With this framework he seeks to relink conceptions and discussions of social development with the concept of society and with positive efforts to build or facilitate social progress. At the same time the false dichotomy between economic and social development is broken.
A specialist in the anthropology of development at the University of Edinburgh, Dr Thin has had important experience in the field of development working as a social development adviser and trainer for the UK Department for International Development and for a number of NGOS. This depth of involvement in the field is readily apparent. He reviews the conception of social development as currently used in policy documents. He relates the meaning of social development to core concepts of sustainable development, such as social welfare and social security.
In laying out a rigorous and effective framework to approach social development, Dr Thin not only seeks to undermine the instrumental and ‘economistic’ views that prevail in most discussions of social policy but also provides examples of how it can be practically applied to development work. It is not meant to be a polemical work, for Dr Thin reserves some of his sharpest criticism for those who speak constantly about ‘social development’ yet seem to offer no clear idea of what it is and how it is to be pursued.
Dr Thin is particularly harsh of “utopian literature that appears to offer radical and attractive visions of social progress while actually doing little more than juggling with words and sentiments.” Instead he issues a call to the international development community to empirically ground their advocacy for empowerment in “rigorous observation and analysis of specific strategies and outcomes”.
To those involved in development work, both in policy planning and in fieldwork, Dr Thin’s book provides an important and consistent framework within which they can approach their work. The BITE framework is used to shed light on a variety of different debates and issues common in the field. It offers assessment techniques that can be used to measure social progress and the effects of interventions by actors seeking to promote social development. His examples are drawn from both rich and poor countries and the experiences documented come from business, civil society and the public sector.
Perhaps the most important contribution of this book is the incorporation of the ethical dimension to discussions of development and social progress in a practical and positive manner. The old vision of endless progress brought about by continual economic growth was a reassuring one, unspoiled by the messy unpredictability of social relations and cultural diversity. The fact that there were social costs and there were often many losers of this kind of untrammeled economic ‘progress’ was seen as a necessary cost. No longer can this naive view stand. Discussions of progress and development can no longer be limited to the growth of the economy. Using conceptual and methodological frameworks of the kind presented by Dr Thin one can take a more comprehensive view of the quality of life and its sustainability.
Social Progress and Sustainable Development
By Neil Thin
ITDG Publishing, 103-105 Southampton Row, London Website:http://
www.idtgpublishing.org.uk
Available at Mirza Book Agency, 65 Shahrah-e-Quaid Azam, Lahore 54000
Tel: 042-7353601
Email: merchant@brain.net.pk
ISBN 1-85339-566-0
182pp. Price not listed
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